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What Most Doctors Don't Discuss About Clogged Arteries

To most people, clogged arteries mean increased risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke. Often, getting diagnosed with partially occluded arteries leads to a prescription for cholesterol-lowering medication or invasive procedures like an angioplasty or bypass surgery.

Before you find yourself being asked to choose one of these conventional medical approaches to addressing clogged arteries, I encourage you to be fully aware of the actual make-up of plaque that can occlude your arteries, the way in which such plaque develops, the different levels of risk that accompany varying degrees of blockage, and most importantly, what you can do to reduce your risk of experiencing health challenges that can be caused by occluded arteries.

Pathology 101 teaches us that accumulation of plaque, commonly called an atheroma, is a buildup in artery walls that is composed of the following:

Specialized white blood cells (macrophages)

Cellular debris

Calcium

Fibrous connective tissue

Damaged lipids (cholesterol and fatty acids)

Atheromatous plaques aren't a welcome addition to your body, but they're extremely common and just one of many natural degenerative developments that occur as you age. To completely avoid atherosclerosis as you get older is virtually impossible; development typically begins in childhood, and the presence of atheromata isn't uncommon even at the toddler stage.

Buildup of atheromatous plaques occurs between the innermost lining of your artery walls and the layer of smooth muscle that gives your arteries the ability to pulsate and propel blood through your circulatory system.

Atheromatous plaques begin with an accumulation of specialized white blood cells that have engulfed damaged low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Your body works to remove such accumulations, but if you're exposed to a continuous stream of them via unhealthy dietary choices, these early accumulations can begin to attract even more white blood cells. Over time, these plaques tend to accumulate calcium deposits on their outer layers; these calcium deposits serve to stiffen the accumulations of white blood cells and damaged lipids within.

Conventional medical thought is that arteries that are clogged by atheromatous plaques decrease blood flow to your tissues, and in the case of occluded arteries that are supplying your heart or brain, if blood circulation is compromised enough, you may experience a heart attack or a stroke.

We now know arteries that are 30 to 40 percent occluded may actually be more likely to contribute to a heart attack than arteries that are 90 to 95 percent clogged. As Dr. Dean Ornish explains, when there is a significant amount of plaque buildup in your arteries, these plaques are more likely to be stabilized by calcium deposits.

Another reason why more occlusion does not always increase your risk of experiencing a heart attack is that your body can develop alternate pathways for blood flow - called collateral vessels - when arteries become fully or almost fully clogged; this is a great example of the never-ending pursuit of your self-healing mechanisms to keep you alive.

An artery that is only 30 percent clogged won't typically have collateral vessels around it (it usually takes more occlusion and time for your body to create collateral vessels).

Also, arteries that are only about 30 percent clogged aren't likely to be stabilized by calcium deposits, which means that whenever you experience significant emotional stress, such arteries can easily constrict due to your body's natural flight/fight response, and constriction of atheromatous plaques can cause them to rupture - this is how plaque ruptures tend to occur.

When a plaque ruptures, it's possible for an artery that was only 30 to 40 percent clogged to become fully occluded within several seconds to a few minutes. This process is termed catastrophic progresion, and is the mechanism by which many heart attacks and strokes occur.

The good news is that studies by Dr. Dean Ornish and his colleagues indicate that making healthy dietary and lifestyle choices can dramatically decrease your risk of experiencing plaque ruptures, and often, even people who have frequent episodes of angina (chest pain) caused by clogged arteries can experience significant improvement within a few weeks.

To reduce risk of heart attack and stroke, one of the most important lifestyle choices to make is to learn how to effectively manage emotional stress because it's emotional stress that's most likely to cause rupture of vulnerable plaques in your arteries via sudden constriction that's regulated by your autonomic nervous system.

Numerous studies clearly indicate that mental and emotional stress - including chronic depression and anger - significantly increase your risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke. This is why being in an unhappy long term relationship is arguably just as dangerous to your health as smoking, eating poorly, and not being physically active.

On the dietary front, the most important action steps are:

Decrease intake of unhealthy fats, sugar-rich foods, and other foods that are rich in refined carbohydrates

Part of ensuring optimal nourishment includes making sure that you're getting enough vitamin B12, vitamin B6, and folate, which are micronutrients that are vital to keeping your blood homocysteine level within a healthy range. Allowing your blood homocysteine level to get and stay elevated virtually guarantees that you will develop cardiovascular disease.

I hope that this post encourages you to continuously work at being emotionally balanced, optimally nourished, and committed to making healthy lifestyle choices every day. These ways of being make up the best approach to treating and preventing clogged arteries, and as soon as you get started, you'll begin to reduce your risk of experiencing cardiovascular disease and a number of other health challenges.

Comments

Dear Dr. Kim,
I can't begin to express my heartfelt thanks to you for ALL that YOU do to help and inform and encourage others to have a healthy life- style. Your heartfelt concern for humanity speaks of God's command-ment to us to LOVE ONE ANOTHER! Because of you I will join Facebook!
I know that God has blessed me with you...I can't say enough good things about the clear, concise medical information you share with us-you don't act like it is all some great mystery and want to give yes and no answers (this is typical of MD's today-they allow you about ten (10) minutes per ailment (if you start asking about some other minor they are edging toward the door-I had one to give me a very disgruntled look when trying to clarify one of my daughter's conditions but I did not care-I am quite used to their coldness and greed!)). I won't waste any more time on that subject! I do know there are those occassions they are necessary and I am grateful. I tell everyone about wonderful YOU! So warm and human!God bless you. SL

This -- particularly the effect of emotions on our physical bodies -- makes such good sense, yet it is something that truly, M.D.s do not tell us. I've been grateful for Dr. Ben Kim's sensible advice and insights for several years now but this was personally relevant to me right now, and I have not seen this process explained at any other site or in any other articles anywhere. Thank you Dr. Kim and keep up the great work, we love you!

This is a very helpful explanation and could be a life saver for me who always needs to understand the reason why you should take or do this or that. Thank you! It is also useful to let people know that it isn't LDL but the VLDL (very low density) particle that cause plaques to build up and we should all ask for this level to be tested for before we are prescribed statins for "high cholesterol" which are known have serious side effects - for example around 40% of all women who take statins WILL develop type 2 diabetes. Something else our doctors don't know or tell us.....

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The contents of this website are the opinions of Dr. Ben Kim unless otherwise noted. The information on this website is not intended as personalized medical advice and is not intended to replace the relationship that you have with your primary care provider. Any decisions you make with regard to your daily choices and medical treatments should be made with the help of a qualified health care provider.